Emigration from Israel now exceeds immigration entering the country, David Horowitz, governor of the Central Bank of Israel, today told delegates at the closing session of the National Economic Conference for Israel. The way to check this trend, Mr. Horwitz said, was to improve economic conditions through support of the State of Israel Bond Issue.
The last sessions of the conference were devoted to the inauguration of the final phase of the first Israel Bond Drive. Delegates to the conference reported on plans for Israel Bond-sponsored celebrations of the 3,0 00th anniversary of Jerusalem in New York and other cities during October and November. Former President Harry Truman will be the guest of honor at the Chicago celebration on November 28. These celebrations will be the occasion for extraordinary campaign activity to obtain large sums of investment capital for Israel through bond sales.
Beba Idelson, a member of the Knesset and general secretary of the Working Women’s Council of Israel, told the sessions that the women of Israel are “just as emancipated as the women of America, ” She said that activities of Israel women “must inevitably accelerate the emancipation of women throughout the Middle East and in other backward areas of the world.”
Women’s divisions throughout the United States have sold more than $25,000,000 in Israel bonds, Mrs. Alex Lowenthal, of Pittsburgh, newly-chosen national chairman of the Israel Bond Women’s Division reported to the conference. Mrs. Moses P. Epstein, former head of the women’s division and newly-appointed honorary chairman of the group, paid tribute to national Jewish women’s organizations for their aid in the drive.
In a personal message addressed to Mrs. Epstein, Israel Prime Minister David Ben Gurion paid tribute to her “unfailing devotion, energy and skill” and congratulated her “on the magnificent performance of a difficult job, ” A replica of the Prime Minister’s letter, engraved on a silver tray, was presented to Mrs. Epstein at the conference.
MORGENTHAU CRITICIZED FOR ATTACKING HISTADRUT ACTIVITIES
An attack on the Histadrut by Henry Morgenthau, Jr., chairman of the board of governors of the Israel Bond Drive, during the conference, today elicited strong statements in defense of Histadrut by a spokesman for the Labor Zionist movement and Harold J. Goldenberg, of Minneapolis, Minn., director of the investment center to Israel.
Mr. Morgenthau told the conference that he “would like to see the Histadrut get out of private business.” Today Mr. Goldenberg declared Mr. Morgenthau’s remarks about Histadrut represented “a mistaken notion of everything which is good in Zionism.”
Describing himself as a “private capitalist who believes in free enterprise,” Mr. Goldenberg characterized the Histadrut as a “tremendous organization without Which we would not have Israel today.” He said that some rumors about Histadrut’s alleged control of business could be described as a “canard” or “lie.” The rumors to which he referred pertained to allegations that the Histadrut demands a 51 percent interest in new businesses.
Following Mr. Morgenthau’s remarks last night, a special meeting was held by representative of the Poale Zion. Farband, and Pioneer Women. They drafted statement which Meyer Brown, coordinating director of the Labor Zionist Movement, sought to read to the conference today. The chair refused Mr. Brown permission to read it so Mr. Brown issued it to the press.
The statement held that Mr. Morgenthau contradicted himself because he had urged American Jews not to interfere in Israel’s internal economic and political problems yet in the same speech had attacked the Israel labor organization. It pointed out that the Histadrut does not maintain private businesses because “overriding created in Israel was in a collective and cooperative nature.”
Stressing that Histadrut does not oppose private initiative, the statement said the organization’s operations were similar to cooperative movements fostered by labor in Scandinavia, Belgium, and England. The Histadrut, said Mr. Brown, did pioneer work in fields which no private business would undertake because of absence of profit incentive. He emphasized that if it were not for Histadrut, the economy of Israel would, today be in much worse shape than it is.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
